Need a TITLE!
by Niu Shiy-Ue
Summary: Takes place a year after FFVII. Please recommend a title! 5th Chapter up
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: If I owned FFVII, do you think Cloud would have lived after defeating Sephiroth?  
  
Warning: Eventual Character Death, but not for a while, and not all of them. Besides, I'm resurrecting some people so that should even out the score.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PROLOGUE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The North Crater is one of the most desolate spots on the world. Far above the Arctic Circle, black cliffs reaching high into the atmosphere, kept clear of snow by the howling winds. Inside the perimeter, protected by those same cliffs, snow does accumulate, sliding down the barren walls in avalanches large enough to sweep anything away. As you go descend however, the air gets warmer. The snow melts and becomes steam, filling the air with moisture. Plants and trees begin to appear, at first resembling the conifers and scrub of more temperate climes, but as you go even deeper, and they get more profuse, they begin to change, becoming more twisted and viscious. Animals begin to appear, as warped and carnivorous as the plants. After a while however, this unique jungle thins out again leaving bare rock, twisted and melted by the impact. Even here, however, nothing is still, the rock itself twists and flows like lava in a variety of rainbow hues. Natural Mako gushes and pools like water from gaps within the bedrock until finally you reach the fountain itself and can go no further.  
  
Very few people had ever ventured here. A long time ago, an alien climbed out and destroyed a civilization. Five years ago a man, mortally wounded, wasthed up here, brought by the Mako streams and froze within a crystal of Materia. He may still be there. A year ago other men, blinded by foreign cells and excessive Mako running through their veins, dressed in black cloaks began to wander in, stumbling and chanting. They never came out again either. Less than six months ago another group of people journeyed here, and were jettissoned when the Lifestream shot out of here in an attempt to prevent another holocaust.  
  
Not many at all. But now something was climbing out of the crater again, clawing past hungry dragons and giant Venus Fly Traps. Hand over hand, over bare rock and snow covered crags. Until finally it reaches the rim of the crater and stares out over wind-whipped plains.  
  
Glowing Mako eyes peered out as a battered, blood-encrusted hand made a fist around a jet-black orb. "They will pay . . . " 


	2. 1:A Reunion and a Stranger

"Tiiifffaaa! Where the &^#%$ do you want this @$$%^@! ribbon!"  
  
"Just leave it on the counter Cid. I'll get Barret to help you put it up when he arrives." Tifa tied the last balloon in place then ran her fingers through her hair. Or started too, her hair was tied back too tightly for her to do so.  
  
It was the five year anniversary of the defeat of Sephiroth. The first two years had been primarily getting over the shock of Meteor and rebuilding after the destruction of Midgar. After that, AVALANCHE had scattered, going back to their old lives or building new ones. Vincent had returned to Nibelheim, Yuffie to Wutai and Nanaki to Cosmo Canyon. Barret had returned to Corel, and brought Marlene and Elmyra with him. They were working with Gongaga Village, researching for ways to revitalize their town. Even today, most of their income came from export labor or, in Gongaga's case, the leftover Materia from the reactor explosion. Reeve, along with a significant portion of Midgar's inhabitants had gone to Junon. The Turks had followed him; the only other surviving Shinra executive had been Scarlet, and their was really no contest between who they'd rather serve. Cid and his crew had hung around Reeve, but last year they had restarted the aeronautics program. He had returned to Rocket Town at that point.  
  
The first two years had been a struggle, there were power shortages all over the world. The second year, however, the remnants of the Shinra Scientific Bureau, combined some of the researchers from Cosmo made a breakthrough, discovering a way to run generators on a discreet flow of Mako then returning the Mako back to the Planet. Unfortunately, there were only a few places that Mako was readily accessible to the surface, so only a few plants were built, in Mideel, Gongaga Nibelheim, Icicle, the outskirts of Midgar and near the Ancient Ruins. Other places like Cosmo, Kalm, Wutai or Junon relied on elderly designs for wind or water current generators. The Golden Saucer, Rocket Town, and Corel broke out old solar panels. However, even today, electricity was still at a much higher price, matching the worst of Shinra's price-gouging.  
  
This was the first time in six months they'd been able to get together. The last time was at Cid and Shera's wedding. Before then had been, the opening of Tifa's new bar in Kalm, Take 5, before that, the repopulation of the Ancient Ruins (now called Aeris by popular, or at least AVALANCHE acclaim). Not that they didn't see each other in between those times, but full scale reunions were rare enough to make this a treat.  
  
Tifa slowed and stopped polishing the table. Six months ago was the last time she had seen Cloud. While he had stuck around to help her start the bar, he hadn't returned with her after the wedding. He said he had been feeling "restless and needed to find himself". What he meant, she knew, was that he needed to find Aeris, in her Promised Land. It still hurt, that he couldn't accept that she was dead after all this time. Aeris had been her best friend, but Cloud took it to extremes. Even if he didn't return her affection, couldn't he have just stayed friends with her instead of going off in a wild goose chase?  
  
She sighed. Well, she was going to see him tonight. Maybe things would have improved over time.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The party was in full swing. Tifa smiled. She couldn't believe how much they had all changed over the past five years. Cid and Shera looked the same, of course, just happier after their marriage. So did Barret and Nanaki, but both Reeve and Elmyra had grey streaks in their hair. Yuffie had grown taller, and gained some curves, but mentally acted the same age as Marlene. Maybe even younger than the 10 year old. Vincent had gotten rid of his long red cloak, but retained his all black clothing, knee-length hair and red bandanna. The Turks, who had come with Reeve, all seemed to have slightly mellowed, though Reno's vocabulary was beginning to match Cid's.  
  
Tifa herself knew she hadn't changed much. Her hair had grown longer until she finally couldn't stand it and had cut it short, short to her ears. That had been a year ago, but it had regrown until it was halfway down her back. She pulled it back into a loose ponytail usually. And since it was so cool up in Kalm, she had taken to wearing less skimpy clothing, although she made sure she could still practice her martial arts in them.  
  
And Cloud . . . Cloud hadn't changed at all. Still the same electric-shock-hairstyle. Same devil-may-care attitude. Same shadows in his eyes, the same ones he had since Aeris had died. Tifa looked at him and her resolve to talk to him disappeared. What would be the point?  
  
Across the room she saw Nanaki perk his ears, looking away from the poker game between Yuffie, Cid, Reno and Reeve. He turned towards the door, then jumped off his seat and made his way over to her. "Tifa" he said. "You closed the bar for tonight, didn't you?"  
  
"Yes, why?"  
  
"Because there's someone knocking at the door." Tifa listened carefully, and there! - it was very faint, but she could hear the sound of someone knocking haphazardly outside. From out of the corner of her eye, she saw Vincent straighten up and turn towards the front of the bar. She got up and walked to the door, by the time she got there, Vincent and Nanaki had taken up protective positions behind her. She was pretty sure Vincent had already unholstered the Death Penalty. Tifa opened the door.  
  
It was dressed in rags, with blood soaking through the shoes. It's hands and arms had scratches all over them and it's hair was long and so filthy that Tifa couldn't tell what color it was. It turned it's face up to her, so begrimed that she couldn't read it's expression, but the desperation in it's dull violet eyes was clear. "Please . . . " It's voice was so hoarse, she couldn't tell if the figure was male or female. "Please help me . . . " 


	3. 2:A Plea for Help

Barret swore to himself. "I'm not a %)###(% nursemaid! Why the #(( am I-"

"Barret!" He turned to see Tifa at the door, holding a small bowl of clean water. "It's not his fault he's unconcious; he's obviously been through a lot." She walked over, dipped the small towel in her bowl and replaced it on the young boy's head. She then reached up and rubbed her forehead.

"Yo, you havin' those headaches still?"

"Yeah. I think there just stress though." She dropped her hand to brush away a strand of deep violet hair from the boy's face. "I hope our patient wakes up soon."

As if her words were magic, the young boy on the bed immediatly began to stir. He turned restlessly for a while, tossing the towel from his forehead, scrunching his face up as if in pain. Then suddenly his eyes opened and he jerked as if to sit up, but then fell back down again. Wide, frightened eyes darted back and forth between Tifa's and Barret's faces before he licked dry chapped lips and spoke. "P-please help me! I need-I need AVALANCHE!"

The ragged figure had cleaned up to something recognizable. A young man, maybe an inch above Tifa's height if he had been standing, very pale and very thin. They had bandaged his cuts and bruises, and said bandages faded into his skin. He had unusual coloring, deep violet hair (natural, as far as they could tell) and bright _violet_ eyes. Not Mako tinged either, instead only a few shades lighter than his hair. Currently he was still wrapped in a blanket on the bed in Tifa's guest room, surrounded by Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Reeve and Nanaki (it wasn't that big a room so everyone else had to wait outside). The man opened his mouth to start his story, but then was distracted when Nanaki jumped onto a chair to be at eye level with everyone. "You're a _Felix Sapiens_! I didn't think there were any outside of the camps!"

That caused raised eyebrows. "Not only do you know what I am, you know of more of my kind? I thought I was the last one left?" Nanaki asked.

The patient flushed. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should start at the beginning; it also deals with a community of your folk."

"My name is Renmaru and I'm a Cetra-"

"WHAT!?!" If the first statement had generated raised eyebrows, the second sent everyone into full shock mode.

"You're a-"

"But I thought that Aeris-"

"This is !-"

"All the Cetra are-"

"SHUT UP!" Cloud bellowed. "You can't be a Cetra. Aeris was the last one and she's DEAD!"

"I don't know this Aeris, but I am a Cetra and certainly not the last one-at least I hope not. That's what I'm here for, to prevent the extermination of everyone in the camps!"

"We're sorry" This was Tifa, the peacemaker. "Your statement just surprised us. We didn't think there were any Ancients remaining. Please continue your story."

"I don't know why you humans always refer to us as Ancients." Renmaru muttered. "Anyway, like I was saying my name is Renmaru and I'm a Cetra. All my life I've been locked up in a research facility-slash-internment camp thing set up by the head of Shinra R&D, Simon Hojo. The lab is designed to study non-human sentients, and holds two communities of 'specimens': _Felix sapiens_ and _Saurus homosimilaris_. Unfortunately something happened, it must have been four or five years ago and funding was suddenly cut from the facility. The scientists there continued their work, though, until about a month ago. Then one of the Shinra executives showed up, and they started to 'clean-up' the camp. They're systemically starting to kill off everyone there. The two communities planned together and managed to send to get a number of people out. We had heard about AVALANCHE from some of the scientists working there and we knew that you were somehow involved in what happened to Shinra. Whoever got out was supposed to make their way to you and beg for your help to rescue us."

"Of course we'll help." This was Tifa. Nanaki concurred. "I've always wanted to meet more of my species, and we can't allow Shinra to indesciminately slaughter."

"I'm curious about one thing. Who was the executive who ordered the mass extermination?" asked Reeve.

"I don't know her name. But she's tall, blonde, rather um-" Renmaru made an hourglass shape with his hands and blushed again. "She wears red clothes, not a lot of them though."

"Scarlet"

"Well &#, what are we waitin' for then?"

"I'm not so sure about this."

"Cloud!" "Strife!"

"Please" Wide violet eyes turned to the spiky-haired leader. "Please, AVALANCHE is our only hope."

Cloud stalled, considered, then looked around at the expressions that surrounded him. They ranged from pleading (Renmaru) to downright furious (Tifa). "Oh, I guess."

"How . . . enthusiastic of you." The members of AVALANCHE gave him looks, indicating that the issue of is refusal would be brought up later.


	4. 3:The Rescue

Cid chewed on the end of his cigarette, eyes scanning the forest below. Renmaru hadn't been able to give an exact location of the camp, but tracing back what he did remember set them searching the southern part of Wutai. Personally, he wasn't so sure about this, why would Shinra have placed a research lab so close to their former enemies? On the other hand, this was Hojo they were talking about, who knows what that sick $&# was thinking? Yet on the other hand he couldn't imagine ol' pale-and-nutzo working anywhere without several tons of computer and equipment and this didn't look like a likely spot. However-wait a minute, he was up to three hands already!

They finally spotted what they were looking for on the tip closest to the other island. "OK, you &, lower down to land. We don't want to give the locals a head's up on our mission. But don't shut off the $#& engines; if you see the distress signal go off you come and strafe the place, got it?"

The crew exchanged glances. "Yo, boss, strafe with what? We haven't got any guns on this rig, remember?"

"Strafe'em with your wits, they're hard enough. Just be ready to swoop to the rescue, alright?"

"Got it boss."

Of all the #!& people to get stuck with, Cid just had to get stuck with the vampire. Not that Vince was a bad character, he was one of the few people who was actually old enough to get his jokes (not that he laughed, but at least they didn't have to be explained to him), but that meant he was in the group that sneaked in, instead of being part of the one that would be blasting the door down in about an hour. And frankly, if Cid had to go sneaking around, he'd rather have been with Tifa or Elena. Hey, he may be married, but he wasn't dead yet!

WHOOP!WHOOP!WHOOP! 

"Damn, someone must have set off the alarm." said Vincent. He straightened up out of his crouch and pulled the Death Penalty out of its holster. "Don't stop" was all the warning he gave Cid before rushing down the hall. Cid cursed and followed. Some guards actually showed up, but Vince dodged and shot them before Cid got close enough to use his spear. "No monsters."

"NO &(!"

"No, I mean, no monsters as maybe this wasn't Hojo's main-" Vincent cut himself off. Cid skidded to a halt beside him, tried to catch his breath and then looked up. "Oh, &#!" In front of them was a large, red mecha. Fortunately, Tifa and Barret got their at the same time.

Battle commenced. Cid started with his Dragon Dive, while Barret and Vincent shot at the mecha while trying to avoid its return shots. Tifa, unfortunately couldn't get close enough to use her martial arts, so instead she was relegated to distance attacks with Materia and healing. Finally a wild swing of its arm knocked Vincent off his feet, into the wall. He stood up, shook his head, then transformed into Chaos and ripped the mecha in half.

"Woah, you guys alright?" That's when Rude and Elena appeared.

"Most of us are fine. I'll stay here with Vincent, the rest of you get to the control center." Tifa knelt by the ex-Turk as the others started trying to open the large steel doors at the end of the corridor.

"I must thank you for rescuing us. Today was to be the final mass 'cleansing' of this camp. If you had come just a few hours later, there wouldn't have been anything here; they were going to raze the buildings as well." A grizzled old male of the same species as Nanaki was speaking to the members of AVALANCE.

"No thanks necessary. Anyone would be outraged at what Shinra was doing. I'm just sorry we didn't get here sooner, we might have been able to save more of you. Not to mention, prevent them from contacting Scarlet and erasing their hard drives." Cloud accepted gracefully.

"Yes, it's too bad that most of the scientists were off with that woman. I admit, I would have liked to see them pay for their crimes."

"I'd like to know where Scarlet's been hiding all this time." Reeve wasn't with them personally, but Cait Sith was.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you some questions, er" Cloud hesitated.

"I'd be happy to answer anything that I can, Mr. Strife."

"Well, first your name . . . ?"

"Maquinna. I'm . . ." The graying male looked around at the 200 odd individuals of his species left in the camp. "I suppose you could say I'm the chief of those who are left. We used to devide ourselves into various tribes, but frankly we barely have a viable population right now. That's something for the future hopefully."

"Ah, yes." Cloud turned and pointed to Renmaru, who was helping a mother and her two cubs over to an aid station. All three looked like they had been starved, but were otherwise fine. In the course of liberating the camp, Cloud had seen many in much worse condition, bones broken, hooked up to machines, exposed to various poisons and illnesses. And the dead. The mass grave had been a hideous sight. "Tell, me do you recognize that man over there."

"Man? He looks more like a boy." Maquinna narrowed his eyes, then shook his head. "No. Should I?"

"He claims to be one of the Cetra from this camp." Now Maquinna grimaced. "It's certainly possible. The scientists here never allowed the prisoners to intermingle."

"So there really were Cetra here?"

"Oh yes. But they finished executing them before they started on us. I hate to say this, but I hope the boy didn't lose anyone in the last purges. If he was alone by the time he left . . . better to have nothing to hope for, than to realize you're too late."

"Thank you for anwering my questions." Cloud visibly slumped at Maquinna's anwer, and even Cait Sith seemed depressed. To think they had come so close to rescuing Aeris's people . . . "We'll start searching for the bodies immediately."


	5. 4:A New Quest

"Thank you so much. This . . . this is above and beyond what I asked of you."

"Consider it nothing, young one. I must admit, opening this area to my own people was munificent of you."

"It's the least I could do." Maquinna, Renmaru and Cloud were standing in the Ancient City, beside the pool that Cloud had chosen as Aeris's final resting place. "Digging up those bodies again . . . "

"They deserved better than that." Cloud stated firmly. AVALANCHE and volunteers from Junon had disinterred the bodies from the mass graves at the base, to be reburied near the ruins. "How do you bury your dead?"

Renmaru shook his head. "We don't. Instead, we return them to the Lifestream. There's an upwelling beneath the city here."

"Need help?"

"No thank you, I'll do it myself." He frowned. "I only wish we could recover Aeris's body. She too deserves to be returned to the Planet."

Cloud grimaced. "I'll see what I can do, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. This pool is deceptive; it's far deeper than it looks."

"Still, I think she'd appreciate it." Violet eyes turned to see a tall, athletic woman walking up to them. "Tifa!"

"Hello Renmaru, Cloud. I just came to tell you that we're ready to start burying your people Maquinna."

"Thank you. I'll be down to give them their Last Rite." The grizzled red beast started down, slow and limping a little from age. Cloud and Tifa started to follow him, when the blond realized that they had left someone behind. "Renmaru!" The purple haired boy turned towards them. "Renmaru, aren't you coming with us?"

He shook his head. "No, I'd like to take this time to be alone for a while. And I'll start moving the Cetra bodies into the Lifestream. It's something I feel I should do alone." Cloud and Tifa were about to protest, but Maquinna beat them to it. "I understand and I'm not offended. Renmaru, if you ever need to talk to anyone, I'm always ready to listen."

"Thank you, Maquinna."

"Tifa! Tifa wake up! I need to talk to someone!" Tifa blinked blurred eyes and tried to focus on the white blob in front of her. It had been a long day, first burying Nanaki's and Maquinna's people (she still didn't know thier names), then helping move the Cetra to their final resting place. Apparently the wellspring of Mako was the same place where Sephiroth had killed Aeris, and that had brought up bad memories for all of them. She supposed it could have been worse. Cloud, unfortunately, had been able to recover what was left of Aeris-a mere skeleton. He was the one who had cradled her bones until Renmaru had taken them away. She couldn't imagine how he felt. "Tifa, please!"

Now she was awake enough to realize what was going on. "Renmaru? It's very late, shouldn't you be in bed?" Renmaru had carried the remains of the Cetra alone in the end, and had still been . . . disposing of bodies when she had gone to sleep.

"No, something's gone right for once!" For the first time, she saw the boy, no, the young man look happy. "I have to tell someone, otherwise I'm gonna burst!"

"Okay, okay" she sat up. "Take a deep breath and calm down. What's gone right? And explain slowly."

He did so. "I had just finished placing the last of the bodies in the Lifestream. After that ordeal I needed time to center myself, time to accept what had happened. Until tonight, I've just kept going, trying not to think of how I had almost done it, almost saved them. So I decided to meditate, right there by the pool. That's when it happened." He broke off and clutched her, temporarily overcome by emotion. "I could hear them. All of them. It had never happened before."

"Hear who? What had never happened before?"

"My people-talking to me. I mean, they had, during my journey they had told me how to find you, how to survive outside the camps. But that was more prodding and emotion, they'd never spoken to me before."

"Ren-Renmaru, you are the last Cetra. All your people are dead."

"I know! But that is how we speak to each other, through the Lifestream. The Lifestream holds the combined soul of all the Cetra who have died. The elders taught us how to commune with it, to draw from the strength and wisdom of countless generations. Alive, we are alone, dead we are connected to everything, the Planet, ourselves, everything!"

Maybe she was dreaming. Or perhaps this would make sense in the morning. "Alright, the other Cetra started speaking to you. What did they say?"

"Tifa, oh Tifa! They told me of a way to ressurect our people! I won't be the last Cetra!"

"Alright, I'm not sure I understand this. Could you please explain it again?" Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE were . . . not quite awake. Tifa had managed to calm Renmaru into waiting till morning before springing the news on everyone, but some people just don't function well before their caffeine injection.

"It's simple. Long ago, before Jenova came, you are aware that the Cetra had an advanced society. We created many artifacts of power, Meteor, the Black Materia is an example of one of our artifacts. One of the avenues of research explored was that of resurrection. Even the most peaceful of societies still has it's fatal accidents, lives cut short. The method of resurrection could give people life again, if they were attatched enough to the world."

"So you're suggesting we go out, find this . . . ?"

"Crystal Materia."

"Find this Crystal Materia and use it to bring everyone in the camps back to life."

"No, of course not. First, the Crystal Materia only works on Cetra, it will not bring the Nahuel or the humans you killed back to life."

"The Nahuel?"

"Maquinna's tribe. Second, the ritual is very draining. At best, a single person could raise five individuals, he or she would probably die after raising more than two or three. Third, even among the Cetra, it can only bring back those who are closest to life, those who have the greatest attachement to living. That is not our way, instead we look forward to joining our ancestors and the Planet in death. So even if I am lucky enough to be able to bring back people, I will probably find very few willing to come back from the dead."

"&&#$&#! If the Cetra could do this, why didn't they do it before? Like after Jenova. Why didn't we hear anything about this?" Cid's foul mouth made the younger man wince. "First for all those reasons I mentioned before, Crystal Materia was very rarely used. When Simon Hojo started killing off what few Cetra communities remained, none of them had any Crystal Materia, even if there had been anyone to resurrect. But Aeris . . . she had found one, or rather, Shinra had found one. She saw it during her captivity in Midgar. When she rejoined the Lifestream, she told me about this." He blushed. "This-this resurrection buisness is supposed to remain a Cetra secret, but I'll need your help to do it."

"Let's take a vote." Cait Sith saw the argument building and tried to head it off. "All in favor of trying to help Renmaru in his potential wild goose chase?" Tifa, Cait, Cid, Shera, Nanaki and Maquinna. "All those against?" Vincent, Barret, Yuffie and the Turks. "Cloud it looks like you're the tie breaker."

Their leader sat and thought. Renmaru was obviously getting anxious. Just when it seemed he was about to say something, the spiky-haired dude stirred. "I say we go for it."

Cheers and whistles followed that statement. "Well, &. It looks like we're in for a longer ride than we expected Shera."


	6. 5:Midgar Ruins

"It's always surprised me" said Nanaki. "That the areas closest to the Lifestream, the blood of our planet, our the ones most uninviting and barren. Except maybe Mideel. Do you know why?" Renmaru shrugged.

"Too much of a good thing." The speaker was another Nahuel, Maiara. Maquinna had sent her to aid them, her skin was a paler, rosier shade than Nanaki's, and her mane was bright orange. The flame on her tail was also red, deeper than her skin, closer to crimson. Her build was also somewhat lighter than his, but she was almost as good as he was in combat. And they'd had plenty of opportunities to see what she could do in Midgar.

"And here we are" Cait Sith nearly bounced off Moggie as he hopped over to another, nearly identical section of the ruins. Reeve, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, had been unable to come with them. Instead, like Maquinna, he was contacting them through Cait Sith. "This used to be where Hojo's department worked. I don't know what good it does, Meteor mixed every thing up thoroughly."

"At least we don't have to worry about looters. Looks like we're the first people here since the clean-up effort." Reno buffed a gold ring on his jacket then tucked it into his pocket. Elena noticed. "Reno! Don't rob the dead! Have some respect!"

"Aw, you're no fun."

"Okay people" Cloud took charge at that point. "Midgar may be a barren wasteland like Nanaki says, but we've seen plenty of unfriendly creatures. We'll devide up into groups of three. Group one: the Turks. Group two: Nanaki, Maiara and Yuffie. Group three: Cid, Shera and Vincent. Group four: myself, Tifa and Renmaru. Group five: Cait Sith, Barret and . . . I think I ran out of people. Okay, Cait Sith, Barret, you wait here by the Airship." He checked his watch. "We have about four hours till the sun goes down. Everyone meet back here after three and a half, no, three hours. I don't want to see anyone wandering around in the dark."

"Let's go!"

"Even if our team doesn't find it, we've definitely made a significant dent in the monster population here."

Tifa wiped the sweat off her brow. "Cloud don't say that. For all we know, these might have been people once, who didn't escape in time."

"Even if they were . . . " Renmaru wiped the blood off his halbard. He had demonstrated competency but not proficiency with almost every weapon they'd had on board. Unfortunately, being a jack-of-all trades and master of none left him somewhat behind the rest of AVALANCHE and the Turks. Only his innate talent with materia allowed him to keep up with his two partners at all. Right now he was carrying the halbard slung across his back and a scimitar belted at his waist. "There's nothing there anymore. No thoughts, just pain-just hunger."

"Nothing?" Tifa was shocked.

"Nothing. They-they don't even have a sense of caution or self-preservation. They attack to feed themselves, but they don't even care what it is."

"That's horrible. And to think, SOLDIER is almost like this." She frowned. "I wonder . . . let's keep going."

"Yoohoo! Our mighty leader!"

"Is that . . . " Renmaru squinted at the waving figure in the distance. "Is that Wuffie?"

"Yuffie" corrected Tifa. "I wonder what she wants?"

"Yo, exalted spiky-haired leader dude! You owe me!"

"Cloud, what's she talking about?"

"I made a bet with her . . . "

"A bet?"

"I can't believe I just betted away a Mastered Materia!"

"& Cloud, it's ya own #!& fault!" Barret was unsympathetic.

"This doesn't look like any other type of materia I've seen before." said Nanaki. Indeed, the orb they were looking at was at least twice as big as their slotted Materia, even bigger than the dense Black Materia used for calling Meteor. It was also, as the name implied, fasceted rather than smooth. Although the edges were clear and scattered refracted light in rainbows around the table, the inner core was a cloudy grey swirl.

"Who would of guessed that Yuffie would be the first to find it?"

"She's a $#!& Materia Hunter, of course she was gonna find it first!"

"It's not exactly a normal Materia. It's more like a Summon than an Attack or an Effect." Renmaru cradled it possessively, wiping off grime with his shirt. He no longer dressed in rags, although the mishmash of borrowed clothing was scarcely any better. He wore a white tee-shirt (Tifa's), deep blue pants that were rolled at the cuffs and tied at the waist (Cloud's), hiking boots and socks (bought by Shera) and a blue jacket (Elena's). Shera made a note to go shopping with Elmyra for some clothes. The boy looked like a grab-bin reject!

"And tell us about it?"

"That's why I shoulda gone, and you shoulda left her with Cait Sith!"

"So now what do we need to do?" Maiara raised her voice to talk over the building argument. "In order to use this, we need to find a place where the Lifestream wells up directly to the surface of the earth."

Cid took his cigarette out. "Back to the City of the Ancients then?" Renmaru shot him a look sharp enough to cut his throat. "We're Cetra, not Ancients. And no, that area is too isolated. We don't know what kind of shape the resurrectees are going to be in. Some place near a city, just in case we need to rush them to the hospital."

"There aren't too many places where natural Mako and civilization meet." interrupted Cait Sith. "Would a place like this be good?"

Renmaru was shaking his head, causing his loose purple hair to fly about. "No, no. Places like this have been over exposed to Mako, they don't have what I need."

"The only places I can think off . . . other than the Northern Crater would be Nibelheim and Mideel then."

"Mideel." Cloud said decisively. "Nibelheim's spring is too far from the town, besides, Nibelheim doesn't have a hospital. Mideel's done a wonderful amount of rebuilding, they're our safest bet."

The discussion continued for a while after that, but everything important had basically been decided. At the end of the meeting everyone scattered, the Turks and Cait Sith huddled in a corner so they could give their report to Reeve, Nanaki and Maiara went up to the deck to keep watch, Yuffie and Shera went to see if they could find some Dramamine (for Yuffie, Shera was perfectly at ease in the air), Barret talked with some crew members, trying to call Elmyra's PHS to tell her about the latest developement, and Cid and Cloud began plotting routes to Mideel. Tifa, Vincent and Renmaru all left to go back to their sleeping quarters, Vincent slightly ahead of the others. Tifa was rubbing her forehead.

"Ms. Tifa? Is something wrong? You kept doing that while we were searching?" Vincent turned around. "Doing what?"

Wide violet eyes met narrow crimson ones. "This" said Renmaru, reaching up and rubbing his own head. Vincent transfered his gaze to the martial artist.

"It's nothing much. I've just had the worst headache this afternoon. It's probably just stress; and it's probably go away after I get some sleep."

"If your sure . . . " Vincent stared at her.

"Yes I'm sure." She smiled back. "But thank you for your concern."

"You should have said something. One of the others could have searched while you rested."

"But I don't want to be a bother to anyone."

"You never are." There was an awkward pause, then Vincent turned around, swiftly entering his own room.

"Err, excuse me" Renmaru interrupted her reverie at that point. "But, Ms. Tifa, do you want me to make you some tea? I know some herbal blends that might help."

"That's very kind of you. And what's with this Ms. Tifa thing?" He shrugged and blushed a little. "It seemed appropriate."

"Well we're friends now. Just call me Tifa, Ms. Tifa sounds so . . . schoolmarmish."

"Okay, Ms- I mean Tifa. Just Tifa." She laughed at that.


	7. 6:Resurrection or not?

"This is . . . unlike anything I've ever seen before." Renmaru was quite simply flabbergasted by the Mideel nightlife. In the years after Meteor, Mideel had made a remarkable comeback. Despite the loss of it's hotsprings and the upwelling of Mako, it had regained it's reputation as a spa town, offering a variety of treatments all "Within the salubrious, health-promoting, enviroment provided by the Lifestream". The Nahuel were dubious about the grammar of the catchphrase, but astonished at the bustling jungle that surrounded Mideel and lended credibility to the advertisement.

"Heh, if you think this is great, we've got to get you to the Golden Saucer someday." Reno stuck a cigarette in his mouth and reached into his pocket to retrieve his lighter. Elena quickly snatched the cigarette away and threw it out. "Aw, Elena!"

Cait Sith quickly overrode the beginning argument. "It may be hard to get access to the Mako spring, the Mideelians? the Mideelans? Anyway, they've fenced the spring in, to prevent any tourists from falling or jumping in." Tifa looked at him, puzzled. "Why would anyone want to jump in?"

Cait Sith's joints couldn't produce a shrug, but he tried anyway. "Some people think if the nearness of the Lifestream could do them good, then immersing themselves in it would be even better. Anyway, the point is the we won't access the spring as easily as we did the first time." Elena frowned. "Do you know if the springs are guarded at night?"

"No idea. But they do take tours during the day, so we probably have a better chance now. Or we could spend a day here, take some time to take notes on everything, and do this tomorrow."

"A good idea." Cloud took over again. "We'll go back to the Airship tonight, make up a plan, then tackle this tomorrow."

"Ahem." Everyone jumped, apparently they had forgotten Vincent was with them. "If we do that, we won't ever find out if there are any guards, or thier schedules." Cloud let out a sigh, frustrated. "Okay, then, do you have a plan?", clearly expecting the ex-Turk to back down.

"Yes. Two or three people should stay behind, to keep watch on this place while the rest of you go back to the Airship. We'll give you the schedule tomorrow, and in your planning sessions tonight leave one slot open, so that one of us can guide the others."

"We?"

"Myself, Rude and . . . " a quick glance between Elena and Reno. "Elena."

"Wait a minute, she's the _rookie_-"

"I don't think-"

"Don't argue with me." Vincent didn't bother raising his voice, but both Reno and Cloud shut up.

"I think we can safely say both Nanaki and myself are out."

"Oh?" Cait Sith hopped over and peered and Maiara. "And why's that?" Maiara held up her paws. "No hands. No way to carry a First-Aid kit, no way to help carry someone if we need to get to a hospital fast."

"Me. Tifa. Elena and Vincent."

"What?" Cloud looked ready to take out his building temper on Renmaru.

"Tifa, Elena and Vincent are not only ready for stealth, but thier fighting styles mean they can carry First-Aid materials without needing to burden themselves with weapons. And they have to take me, I'm the only one who can use the Crystal Materia."

"But still-"

"There's no way we could sneak your hair past any of the guards, let alone that huge sword your carrying."

In the end, Renmaru's plan had won out, though Cloud had raised strenuous objections. They had added Rude, though, to the number of infiltrators, just in case something went wrong. Like Renmaru had asked, none of them carried any weapons, only items needed in case the resurectees were in bad shape, but they had divided thier Materia between Attacks and Healing. Getting in had been easier than they expected, there were only two guards and they were very lax, indeed one was quite clearly snoring.

"Well this is it." Renmaru unwrapped the Crystal Materia and knelt by the spring. Although the light was dim, Tifa could just make out the look of excitement on his face and his eyes were also faintly . . . sparkling? Yes, not enough to really attract attention and if she had been any farther it would have been lost in the glow from the Mako, but just a faint bit of gold seem to glitter in the purple eyes. Tifa noted to herself to tell this to Nanaki and Maiara, they would undoubtly find this fascinating. "I just hope I can pull this off."

He looked deep into the materia and seemed to go into a trance. He started chanting softly and the others strained to hear him. It almost felt that if they just listened closely enough, they would understand the words he was saying, but thier meanings still tickled just beyond thier comprehension. A deep glow began to emenate from the materia, pulsing stronger and stronger. It was hypnotic, almost like a heartbeat. Tifa felt herself beginning to be drawn in, when suddenly the materai flashed bright as a supernova and Renmaru cried out. Something seemed to bubble up from the spring and Rude started up, and went as close to it as he dared.

Tifa snapped back to herself and quickly reached out to the young man, who appeared to have fainted. After making sure he hadn't hit his head and was still alive and breathing, she looked at the others. Whatever was in the lake had drifted to the shore and Rude had pulled it out. Tifa could make out that it was two bodies, but she wasn't sure who or what. "That's enough for tonight." Vincent murmured. "Whatever happened now took a lot out of him. Let's get him and whatever Rude just recovered back to the Airship, so we can get them the treatment they need." With that he carefully picked up Renmaru and made his way back to the gap where they had entered. Tifa leaned down and picked up the Crystal Materia. To her surprise the glow she had seen earlier was completely gone, and the orb now looked dead.


End file.
